Measuring National Well-being – Health, 2013

This article analyses by age and other variables two of the current measures of national well-being: ‘satisfaction with health’ and ‘evidence of mental ill-health (GHQ)’ and their relationship to well-being.

Key points

In the UK in 2010–11 for those aged 16 and over:

Two thirds (66%) of people were satisfied with their health with a slightly higher proportion of men than women.

Satisfaction with health reduced to 53% of those aged 80 and over.

Around a fifth (19%) of individuals had some indication of anxiety or depression with a higher proportion of women than men and a higher proportion of those aged between 40 and 59 or aged 80 and over.

Some evidence of anxiety and depression occurred in a higher percentage of those who were divorced or not in paid work or dissatisfied with their health or who were caring for someone else in the household or who were living on their own.

Around three in ten (28 %) reported restrictions in moderate daily activities: the percentage reporting restrictions increased considerably with age from 13% of those aged 16 to 24 to 77% of those aged 80 and over.

About 14% of those who reported no limitation in moderate activities showed some symptoms of anxiety or depression compared to 26% of those with a little limitation and nearly 41% of those with a lot of limitation.